Diagnostic Tests

However, if you would like to use a different approach to assess how well your body is doing and have the ability to confirm that whatever treatment you chose (herbs, supplements, drugs, etc.) is working or not, then diagnostic tests might be a really good idea for you.

We offer a number of diagnostic tests that look at how your or your child’s body functions, how well you or your child can deal with environmental toxins and what actual levels of toxins you or your loved ones might be exposed to.

Why Order Diagnostic Tests?

Diagnostic tests have become so affordable and provide so much information about how your body is working that it really makes no sense not to do them.

Why wait until it is too late and you or your child have become really sick? Wouldn’t it be better to be able to identify early warning signs and then be able to make adjustments and change the trajectory of your or your child’s life? Most serious diseases take years to develop, what if you could dramatically reduce your child’s risk of cancer or auto-immune disease? Wouldn’t you want to do that for them?

That is what we do at Green Health Acupuncture.

You know how some doctors order blood tests or urine tests and then prescribe medication? Well we order blood or urine tests and prescribe a diet and herbal supplements based on what we find in your blood test. The we re-test in 6 to 8 weeks to check your progress and make sure that what we are doing is working.

This approach is very effective and we can accomplish a lot clinically using this method. And you will not have to add to your toxic burden with more medication.

You can also stop issues before they become too serious and make sure that whatever supplements, vitamins or herbs you are taking or have been recommended are really appropriate for you.

We Practice Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is an emerging field of medicine that is neither conventional nor alternative. Most doctors and alternative medicine practitioners practice the way that they were taught in school. They see a particular symptom and they prescribe a drug or herb, herbal formula or vitamin and mineral supplement for that symptom.

The problem with this approach is that, in reality, it often does not work. The reason it does not work is because any given symptom may have many causes. In the functional medicine model we treat according to the mechanism. In other words, we first look at all the data and find out the cause of the symptom and the mechanism behind it that has created that symptom.

For example, take insomnia. If you go to an MD, he or she will prescribe ambien,lunesta or some other sleeping pill. If you go to your herbalist they might prescribe valerian or suan zao ren tang. These may or may not work and in the case of the medication, are addictive and have some really bad side effects.

Insomnia can be caused by many things: it could be an adrenal and blood sugar problem, it could be a thyroid problem, it could be a pituitary problem. Or it could be that you just drink too much caffeine. Wouldn’t it be better to find out which problem it is and fix that?

This approach takes more time, it takes more clinical experience and it often takes a combination of a good exam,a good history and diagnostic tests. However, if you find the mechanism that caused the symptom and treat it, you will often have much more success clinically. And you will usually correct a lot more than just that symptom.

Tests That We Offer

Here are some of the diagnostic tests that we offer with links to more pages that go into greater depth about each test:

Testing Your Body’s Ability to Detoxify:

Glutathione and Erythrocytes: Glutathione is one of the most important detoxifiers in the body. It is used to detoxify and clear toxic chemicals and heavy metals that can not be detoxified by the liver.

If you have been exposed to environmental toxins and they are overwhelming your body, glutathione levels will often be lower than normal. When that happens you become much more vulnerable to more serious damage. Click here to learn more.

Liver Detoxification: A basic blood test will only reveal problems with the liver involving fatty liver or inflammation of the liver or gall bladder. This test shows us how well your liver is actually detoxifying toxins.Important if you live in an urban environment or work in place that exposes you to lots of toxic chemicals. Click here to learn more.

Testing Your Body’s Vulnerability to More Serious Diseases

Oxidative Stress and DNA Damage: DNA damage and oxidative stress are what lead to mutations and cancer and auto-immune disease. This can be an effective marker for how vulnerable you are to the most common deadly diseases of our time. And if you are repeatedly exposed to chemcials or toxins at work, can reveal how much damage has been done. Click here to learn more.

Leaky Gut Test: Intestinal permeability or “leaky gut” is a common problem with regard to environmental toxins. Toxic overload can cause the lining of your intestine to break down and this can lead to a break down of your body’s entire barrier system. When this breaks down toxic chemicals and heavy metals have direct access to your internal organs and your brain. Not good. Click here to learn more.

Testing for Thyroid, Auto-Immune Thyroid and Other Auto-Immune Issues:

Auto-immune issues are on the rise and it is agreed that the reasons are inflammation and immune dysfunction caused by constant exposure to environmental toxins and infectious agents. We offer testing and treamtent for various auto-immune conditions.

Coming Soon: Hashimoto’s or Auto-Immune Thyroid: The only treatment for auto-immune thyroid in the Western medical model is thyroid hormone therapy. There are over 22 reasons for thyroid problems and only one of them is corrected by thyroid hormones. What happens if you have one of the other 21 problems? We can help you with that. We look at all the thyroid markers and antibodies to thyroid tissue and thyroid binding globulin – tests that tell you whether or not you have Hashimoto’s or auto-immune thyroid. Click here to learn more.

Coming Soon: Multiple Autoimmune Reactivity Screen: The reality is that auto-immune disease has no cure and the best one can hope for is learning how to properly manage your condition. It is also important to understand that when one tissue or groups of tissue is being attacked by the immune system there are often other tissues and systems that are also being attacked. This test can identify all the major tissues that are vulnerable to auto-immune attack so that you can be proactive and know exactly where you are vulnerable. The value of that information? Priceless. Click here to read more.

Coming Soon: Cytokine Testing: Auto-immune conditions are complicated, but there are specific immune complexes called cytokines that are known to be present in different parts of the immune system. By assessing these different parts of the immune system we can understand where the dysfunction may be and take steps to rebalance and strengthen the parts of the immune system that regulate the attackers. Very useful clinically. Click here to learn more.

Testing for Environmental Toxins:

Volatile Solvents: Volatile solvents are routinely used in industrial processes to manufacture consumer products. Each year, annual production of these solvents numbers in the tens of billions of pounds in the United States.

Air and water pollution are common routes of exposure in both our homes and workplaces. We are also exposed by inhalation or ingestion of car exhaust, paints, glues, adhesives, and lacquer thinners. For those living and working in urban areas, the exposure to this class of compounds goes on twenty-four hours a day.

Solvents are very damaging to bone marrow and have been associated with many of the bone marrow cancers as well as anemia and thrombocytopenia. They are also associated with immune disorders, including autoimmunity, chronic neurologic problems, and infertility. Click here to learn more.

Coming Soon: Porphyrins: Porphyrins are proteins involved in the formation of heme measured in urine. Heme is essential for the proper function of many proteins including oxygen transport, energy production, and detoxification.

Coming Soon: Phthalates & Parabens: The Phthalates & Parabens Profile can help identify everyday exposures to toxins from the use of items such as personal care products and plastic food containers. Environmental toxins should be evaluated as a “first step” to help patients get back on the road to wellness.

Exposure to phthalates and parabens is more common than you may realize. Phthalates and parabens are often classified as xenoestrogens, foreign compounds in the body functioning as endocrine disruptors by binding specifically to estrogen receptors.Click here to learn more.

Coming Soon: Chlorinated Pesticides: The Chlorinated Pesticides Profile can help identify when a patient has been exposed to certain pesticides and insecticides, and how high a body burden of chlorinated pesticides the patient is carrying.

This panel looks at the most commonly found chlorinated pesticides, which have national reference ranges, that have been documented to cause adverse health problems. Levels are given both in parts per million (PPM) and as lipid-adjusted amounts so the clinician can best estimate the total body burden of these compounds.

Chlorinated pesticides have been identified in over 98% of all persons studied, have an affinity for lipid-rich tissues, and are stored in various organs and adipose tissues. These toxins also bioaccumulate in our bodies, increasing our toxic body burden over time, are powerful mitochondrial toxins, and may be the root cause of many chronic illnesses.

The primary toxic effect of this family of pesticides is at the site of nervous tissue and muscle membranes. These poisons are absorbed across the gut and interfere with nerve impulse transmissions. In humans, this interference normally shows up as chronic neurological problems including mood disorders and difficulties with learning and memory. Click here to learn more.

Coming Soon: The Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) Profile:This test can help identify which of the most toxic PCBs a patient has been exposed to and the body burden of the patient.

In adults, a heavy burden of PCBs over time can cause impairments in the brain, nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system, and may cause fertility issues.

A PCB burden affects children more than adults. PCBs are most often passed to children through breastfeeding and trans-placental transfer. PCB exposure in children can impede neurobehavioral and immune system development. These impediments may cause delayed neurobehavioral development in motor skills and short term memory, and lower scores on intelligence, psychomotor, and behavioral tests. A lowered immune system can create many problems in children including allergies, sensitivities, and chronic infections.Click here to learn more.

Coming Soon: Organophosphates: These chemicals can be hazardous to the neurological development of children and babies in the womb, producing lower IQs. Other health effects include chronic fatigue, asthma, wheeze, immune system disorders, impaired memory, disorientation, depression, irritability, flu-like symptoms, and may increase risk of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Most exposure to organophosphates occurs from ingestion through the food supply. Organophosphate pesticides/insecticides are nerve agents that inactivate the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which is essential to nerve function. Click here to learn more.

Coming Soon: Heavy Metals: Lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, aluminum are all toxic metals that can cause a variety of health problems. We use a hair mineral analysis to determine heavy metal levels.

Hair has a long history of successful use in detecting chronic exposure to toxic heavy metals in humans and animal models because hair concentrates heavy metals several hundred fold above concentrations found in blood.

When any of the toxic heavy metals are elevated in hair, there is reason to investigate the origin of exposure. High levels in hair may reflect early chronic exposure before other signs and symptoms appear.Click here to learn more.

At Green Health Acupuncture we offer testing using modern diagnostic techniques, natural treatment using the wisdom of Chinese medicine and timely follow up to make sure that what we are doing is working. Don’t just settle for subjective measures of how your body is functioning. Test, treat and re-test to insure that you and your children or loved ones get the best possible care.

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Green Health Acupuncture, Inc. offers medical and holistic health care services. We make no representations, claims or warranties (express or implied)regarding the suitability or results of its health care services for any given individual. All rights reserved 2012